Fans flock to fetid flower

Staff at the Ethel Belk Greenhouse on Western campus estimate about 3,000 people came to see the Titan Arum, or corpse flower, in its rare bloom the week of April 5-12.

Youngsters, college students, retirees and others signed the college notebooks that were called into use as guest books outside the greenhouse doors.

With a webcam taking and posting pictures once per minute and various media giving the flower great attention, visitors filtered in and out of the Belk Greenhouse morning, noon and night most of the week.

While some signees noted hometowns as far as Alaska and New Jersey, it is suspected they were here for studies first, flower gazing second.

However, visitors from at least as far as Columbus made the trip to see and smell the pungent petals of the corpse flower.

Now that it is closing and drying post-bloom, Jack Keegan and his student staff have cut holes into the colm and base to allow visitors to see the interior of the plant. Both male and females seeds exist at the base.

Miami's Turrell Herbarium will remove and save segments of the spadix (long tall stem) and spathe (base) of the plant.